The Enlightened Gardener

Lisa M. Rohlmann is a former business owner in Shelburne, Ontario.

Sydney Banks is a well-known author, philosopher, and theosophist who
has lectured at universities and clinics throughout North America and
Europe. A growing number of doctors, health-care workers, and teachers
are applying his profound understanding of the human psyche in their
fields of work.

In this book, Banks relays his wisdom through a story about four
American psychologists who meet at a conference in rural England.
Expected to learn from the “experts” in the field of psychology,
they instead find themselves more intrigued by the wisdom of the
hotel’s old gardener. Every day they meet the gardener in the
beautiful park that surrounds the magnificent Tudor hotel to
passionately discuss and argue their points of view. Instead of feeling
vindicated in their knowledge, they find themselves more and more drawn
to the simple truths of the gardener. Their topics (and book chapters)
include “Thoughts, Forgiveness, Love and Marriage, The Ego, and Mind
and Soul.” When the conference ends, they leave with a new perspective
and a renewed understanding of themselves and their patients.

Banks is a good storyteller. In our hectic and often troubled society,
his book has comforting words of guidance for us all.